Contents

History

The facility was first opened in the summer of 1983. The gala grand opening was held on December 16, 1983, featuring
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin and
Diana Ross.[6] The facility hosts numerous events, such as concerts, music festivals, conventions and
boxing cards. For ring events, the capacity is 19,522; for basketball, the capacity is 18,000.[6]

The indoor stadium has been hosting basketball matches of the
UNLV Rebels since 1983 and it underwent a major interior and exterior renovation in 1999. 2008 saw the installation of all new visual equipment, which included a 4-sided new center-hung LED widescreen scoreboard, which includes four LED advertising/scoring boards above it and a LED advertising ring below it to replace the one installed in 1995, a partial LED ring beam display covering 80% of the balcony's rim, a new 50' LED scorer's table display, a new shot clock system for the backboards, six wall-mounted locker room game clocks, two new custom scoreboards with fixed digital scoring and complete player stats and a new outdoor marquee LED video billboard.

The facility is named after two prominent Nevada bankers,
E. Parry Thomas and
Jerome D. Mack, who donated the original funds for the feasibility and land studies. In 2001, a smaller arena,
Cox Pavilion, was added to the complex; the two arenas are directly connected. Cox Pavilion is used for smaller events; its main tenants are the UNLV women's basketball and volleyball programs.

Rodeo

In late 2007,
CBS filmed part of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, "Bull", at the Thomas & Mack Center, which was hosting the
PBR World Finals.
The Thomas & Mack Center hosts the
National Finals Rodeo annually each December. It also hosted the
PBR World Finals from 1999 to 2015 before the event moved to the new
T-Mobile Arena from the 2016 season onward; the PBR returned in 2018 to host their annual "Last Cowboy Standing" event.[9] As a surprise during the 2018 PBR Finals in November, CEO Sean Gleason announced that the PBR Last Cowboy Standing event will be hosted at
Cheyenne Frontier Days in
Cheyenne, Wyoming starting in 2019. This move to the world's largest outdoor rodeo expands on a growing partnership.[10][11]

Other sports events

On March 30, 1984, the
USA Olympic volleyball team competed in the international competition at Thomas & Mack Center.

On January 25, 1992,
Guns N' Roses performed at the arena during their
Use Your Illusion Tour. It was the largest attendance single performance concert with 17,590 fans in attendance. Later, the record was broken by
U2 on November 18, 2001 when U2 sold 17,771 tickets.[12]

Rock band
Phish performed at the arena 10 times. The first time on November 13, 1997 as their Fall tour opener. They also played on October 30 and 31, 1998. During the Halloween Night performance, the band covered
The Velvet Underground's "Loaded" album in its entirety during the second set. This performance is available on the band's official live release Live Phish Volume 16. The band returned to the arena for two shows in September 2000 on the 29th and 30th and again for two more shows in February 2003 on the 15th and 16th. They also played three shows in 2004 on April 15, 16 and 17th.